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Arid Lands Newsletter No Arid Lands Newsletter No. 15 (November 1981) Item Type text; Newsletter Authors University of Arizona. Office of Arid Lands Studies. Publisher Office of Arid Lands Studies, College of Agriculture, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) Download date 24/09/2021 14:28:08 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/227876 November 1981 ALIC LIBRARY COPY No. 15 ARID LANDS NEWSLETTER Office of Arid Lands Studies University of Arizona, Tucson The short -run economics of conserving arid land resources appear to be almost always unfavorable. When commodity prices are high relative to the farmer's or rancher's operating costs, the return on a production - enhancing investment is invariably greater than the return on a conser- vation investment. And when commodity prices are relatively low, arid land ranchers and farmers often have to use all their available financial resources to stay solvent. Economic survival, not conservation, is their prime concern. For the subsistence rancher or farmer, of course, survival is a permanent preoccupation. Efforts to combat desertification that do not take these economic realities into account will either flounder politically or will cause considerable human hardship. -David Sheridan Desertificationofthe United States Council on Environmental Quality, 1981, p. 122 COVER: Without air conditioning, swamp coolers, or even electric fans, early Arizona dwellers found simple `passive' ways to keep cool in the smoking -hot summers. Here is one example of an early 1900s Tucson house showing the porch effect created by deep overhang of roof, plus slatted railing to allow for breeze -photo by Helen J. Kessler ARID LANDS NEWSLETTER No. 15 November 1981 Traditional Low Desert -Shelter Design in the American Southwest Helen J. Kessler and John F. Peck 2 Environmental Protection of the Arid Zone of the Azerbaijan SSR H. A. Aliev 8 Buffalo Gourd for Breakfast, Anyone? 14 The Boyko Research Center 15 Editorially speaking: Play It Again, Sam 17 Meetings 18 ? ?? Have You Seen ? ?9 19 Update on Reforestation in Ecuador 22 International Arid Lands Visitors to UA /OALS 23 Deforestation/ Afforestation in Sudan 24 Another ALN Special Issue Upcoming 24 Published by: The University of Arizona Office of Arid Lands Studies 845 North Park Avenue Tucson, Arizona 85719, USA Editor: Patricia Paylore Distributed worldwide without charge. Address correspondence relating to contents, or requests for future mailing, to the Editor. Fig. 1: Ramada, Papago Reservation, San Xavier Mission background. Fig. 2: Early example of porch effect created by' deep overhang. 2 TRADITIONAL LOW DESERT -SHELTER DESIGN IN THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST Helen J. Kessler* John F. Peck* INTRODUCTION In addition to building such pit houses, Pueblo and Salado peoples of the desert southwest also constructed `Our building history is a history of solar architecture' walls entirely of mud. Instead of using blocks, which were (Stein, 1977, p. 23). For many years people lived in the hot arid regions of not introduced until the Spaniards arrived in the 17th the American Southwest without benefit of either me- Century, they used a building technique referred to as pise or rammed earth, by which a form of interwoven chanical heating or cooling, building their homes instead from local materials which enabled them to cope with twigs was built, into which mud was puddled to construct the walls. After the mud had dried, the form was moved climatic extremes. Even though they may not have been as comfortable as we are today, there are nevertheless so that another course could be laid (Nabokov), 1981, many cooling concepts to be learned from the early p. 7). The great Casa Grande (a deliberate redundancy!) near present -day Coolidge, Arizona, was built using this settlers. method. Because the walls needed to be very thick, as much as five feet thick at the bottom for multistoreyed Indian Settlements structures and compound walls, they provided a great Some of the earliest known dwellings in southern deal of thermal mass, thus stabilizing the internal tem- Arizona were the pit houses constructed by the Hohokam peratures. The flat roofs were built in a manner similar to Indians, built partially below ground level to take those of the pit houses. advantage of the stable earth temperatures and to These mud structures had small doors and either very provide a place for cool air to settle (the thermal diode small or no windows. By keeping openings to a mini- effect). Above the pit, a structure was built made with mum, the building's temperatures would remain quite mesquite or cottonwood rafters supported by crotched stable, although ventilation was probably nonexistent, posts. Twigs and reeds laid on the roof were also used to perhaps at that time a minor consideration since people form the walls of the structure, both roof and walls then spent much of their time out of doors, working under being covered with mud to provide some degree of ramadas during the day, sleeping on their flat roofs at insulation (Sobin, 1977, p. 97). This method of con- night. struction called jacal continued to be used even after the Indians began building homes with entirely mud walls. Hispanic Influence The jacal became the cooking area for families without a It was the Spaniards who brought with them into the wish to build a kitchen inside (West, 1974, p. 117). Smoke escaped through the porous roof, and the main house Southwest U.S. the concept of forming mud into adobe bricks for use as walls. Generally built with two withes of stayed cooler in summer. 9 "x 18 "x4" blocks, this method produced a 19 " -20" thick A version of the pit house orjacal can still be seen in the exterior wall, including mud plaster on both sides. Roofs ramada, built as an adjunct to the high mass adobe homes of the present day Pima and Papago Indians. Since were also mud, built as the Indians had before them. ramadas were usually not attached to the main adobe While rooms were small, their size was determined by the building, breezes could blow from any direction to cool length of round logs (vigas) available. A variety of residential floor plans were used, based on its inhabitants for increased summer comfort (Fig. 1). a square module. While some buildings had only one, Sometimes these Indians built two mud structures close others had a series of modules, often built in stages. Plan together, covering the area between with a lightweight forms included two or three in a line, or U- shaped, or a roof to form a breezeway. On the Papago Reservation four square shape, or the zaguan (or central hall) (Sobin, near Tucson, this device is still employed and furnishes a op. cit, p. 102). A module might have both a door and a relatively comfortable place to sit on the warmest sum- window on opposite sides. When several were attached in mer days. a row, windows between modules were left in place to * Project Designer and Project Engineer respectively, Environmental Research Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson.All photos by Helen J. Kessler. 3 allow for better ventilation. Because windows were so adobe buildings. The new roof both protected the mud small, however, and houses were not often built in the roofs (on existing houses) and provided extra air space direction of the prevailing breezes (southeast -northwest which could be vented in summer. Because they were of in Tucson, for instance), ventilation probably was not lower mass than the mud roofs, however, they probably very effective. allowed for an increase in the temperature swings of A plan which provided for better ventilation was the homes built only with wood frames. zaguan with its large (often 8 -10 foot wide) central Porches were often installed on one or more sides of hallway. Two adjacent rooms were built off each side of the building. Not only did the porch provide a protected the hall, with transoms installed above the doors from the low mass area for occupants, but it protected the walls hall into each room. Depending on whether the building from the hot summer sun (Fig. 2, and cover). The earliest was adjacent to another building, each room had one or porches were left open, but in the early 1900s screened two windows. By opening doors on either end of the porches became more common. Porches and balconies zaguan (often there were operable windows adjacent to on multistoreyed buildings were popular places to sleep doors which could be opened), breezes could ventilate because they were much cooler than the interior of the both the hall (which was often used as a living area) and high mass rooms which continued to heat up in the the rooms as well. In effect, the hall thus became a evening after a day of sun. Examples of sleeping porches breezeway to help cool the high mass adobe structure at and balconies may still be seen on old hotels which night. typically had entrances to the balcony from each room. As an example, Julio and Judy Bernal granted Kessler Figure 3 shows a roof porch, open on four sides, on a an interview in July 1981 to discuss a building located in large Tucson house, probably built in the early 1900s, Tucson's Barrio Historico which they are currently which may well have been the coolest place to be for restó,ing. It appears to have started out as one or two much of the day. This particular house also had a square modules, with later owners adding a central hall basement, fairly common for the period, to take ad- and two more rooms to form a zaguan plan. Two reasons vantage of the cool and stable earth temperatures and for doing this might be assumed: provide a refuge from the sun on summer afternoons.
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